Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital at 10:30 this morning. After leaving the hospital, the Holy Father went to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to pray before the icon of the Virgin Mary. Salus Populi Romani. Francis thanked Our Lady for the success of his surgery, and also said a special prayer for all the sick, especially for those he met during the days of his hospitalization.
The Pope has thus made a gesture of affection for Our Lady which he usually repeats every time he undertakes and ends a trip outside Rome and which he wanted to make once his stay at the "Agostino Gemelli" University Hospital, where he was admitted on Sunday, July 4, to undergo surgery for a "symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon", is over.
The Holy Father has been in the hospital for a little more than a week, a time in which, in addition to the surgical intervention, he has visited the children admitted to the Oncology area of the center as well as other sick people who have been the Pope's "companions" in the hospital during these days. He arrived at the Vatican at around 12:00 noon.
During these days, he has been able to thank the doctors and health personnel for their work and has received constant of affection from all over the world that, as he himself pointed out in the recitation of the Angelus from the hospital "had moved him deeply".
July is the Holy Father's month of rest, so the Pope's activity usually decreases in intensity during these weeks, something that is expected to help the 84-year-old Pope's full recovery.